1. Investigating the Lived Experience of a Virtual World After
School Club. Chris Bailey
2. My Background Teacher / Assistant Headteacher - primary age
range Researcher - digital literacy, practitioner research, PhD -
education, literacy, technology Club Leader - extra-curricular
Minecraft Club
3. Forthcoming Study 'Investigating the lived experience of a
children's virtual world after-school club.' Year long ethnography
of a Minecraft Club Approx 15 Y6 children (10 11 years) Classroom
based, using laptops / ipads Building and inhabiting a virtual
community
4. What is Minecraft? Sandbox indie video game Building Blocks
'Virtual Lego' Survival / Creative modes Edu mod Virtual World
5. Context New Literacy Studies (Street, 2003) Multiliteracies
(Cope and Kalantzis, 2000) Hybrid sites (Burnett and Bailey, 2014)
School Based Studies Virtual Worlds
6. Focus Illuminate the experience and motivations of
individuals who are compelled, motivated and engaged by
participation in virtual world play. (OMara, 2012; Bailey and Moar,
2001; Merchant, 2009) Articulate how identities are formed and
meanings are made by participants interacting in and around social,
virtual environments. (Wohlwend et al, 2011; Dickey, 2011; Marsh,
2011) Explore how children negotiate the complex relationships
between material and virtual place and space. (Dickey 2010; Ito,
2009)
7. Background to the Club Child initiated club Flat, empty
space Famework: Building 'a community space' 'Bradborough' Self
guided / Adult input
8. amazingly, we started off with just a flat land and we have
produced this big community... Abigail Bradborough is a town which
is relentlessly growing... where anyone can build.' - Joseph
9. Self-guided activities Just a few examples of what the
children did..... Made squid farms Built a hotel with a bar,
swimming pool and sauna Made a library Erected a central statue -
'the butter God' Created a history for the village Enacted play
based on popular culture references -Hunger Games, Baby Monkey,
Kensuke's Kingdom Set traps for each other Created a rollercoaster
Crafted 'armour and weaponry at the forge' Created a theatre and
staged a performance of 'Mamma Mia'
10. The Tornado - destruction of a community Adult input Topic
Link Rules disappeared, Conventions Activities dispersed
11. Designing an Research Approach / Complexities 1a. Why
Ethnography? b. Why Participatory Ethnography? 2. Focus of
observations (Photography analogy) 3. Re-conceptualising
ethnography: a. For a hybrid site (on / off screen) b. For existing
relationships 4. Methods outlined
12. 1a. Why Ethnography? Longitudinal, ongoing, changes over
time Detailed interpretation of an aspect of socially located,
human experience (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011) Learning about a
culture, describing what participants do and the meanings they
ascribe to their actions (Wolcott, 2008, p. 71) 'Thick description'
(Geertz, 1993) (Virtual / Connective? (Hine, 2000))
13. 1b. Participatory Ethnography Participatory - my role in
the club Participatory - children as researchers Taking account of
the 'competing versions of reality and multiple perspectives'
(Brewer, 2000, p. 108) Addressing the balance of power
14. 2. Photographer's Dilemma Of all the objects in the world:
why choose (why photograph) this object, this moment, rather than
some other?' (p. 6)
15. 2. Photographer / Ethnographer's Dilemma Capturing a
representation of the truth but there are decisions to be made:
Where to look? When to look? What to capture? Which angle? Which
perspective? Close-up or from a distance? Fixed or movable
viewpoint? Edits and filters? Is the original more 'true'? Self -
disappear or make visible? Complicated further by 'hybrid
sites'
16. 3a. Hybrid Sites Complex network of places and spaces.
'hybrid on/offscreen sites' / 'hybrid physical/virtual sites'
(Burnett and Bailey, 2014) Fluid, not fixed. Participants inhabit a
number of inter-related social realities (Merchant, 2009) resulting
in a multiplicity of presence (Martin et al, 2012). The complexity
can lead to 'an unravelling of certainties about researching
literacies' (Burnett and Merchant, 2013) Necessary to focus on
multiplicities that avoids the 'temptation to reify an event as a
unit of analysis.' (Burnett and Merchant, 2013)
17. 3b. Rethinking My Identity Renegotiating 'Burdened with
pieces of ready-made identities' / required to extend and redefine
already existing relationships (Nespor, 2010, p. 203) Establishing
a researcher identity Positioning Hybrid role as the club leader
and a researcher An adult who is open to contribution,
co-construction and participation at children's invitation
Responsibility towards the safety and wellbeing of the children
Control? Performing Rehearsal - Clothing / Appearance Virtual me?
Power balance Reflexivity Second level of reflection (Watt, 2007,
p.83) - reflective research journal / blog
18. Making a room for 'Ava the tiny babby'
19. 4. Outline of Methods Selected to take account of different
perspectives that represent the multiple modalities and
interactions that will arise in this hybrid space. 1. Participant
Observation (45 hrs) 2. Discussion Activities (5 hrs) 3. Interviews
(8 hrs) 4. Collection of materials (ongoing)
20. References Burnett, C. & Bailey, C. (in press).
Conceptualising collaboration in hybrid sites: Playing Minecraft
together and apart in a primary classroom. In: Burnett, C., Davies,
J., Merchant, G. & J. Rowsell (ed.). New literacies around the
globe: Policy and pedagogy. . Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge. BAILEY,
Fiona and MOAR, Magnus (2001). The vertex project: Children
creating and populating 3D virtual worlds. International journal of
art and design education, 20 (1), 19-30. BARTHES, Roland (1981).
Camera Lucida: Reflections on photography. Macmillan. BREWER, John
D. (2000). Ethnography. [online]. Buckingham [England], Open
University Press.. BURNETT, Cathy and MERCHANT, Guy (2013). Points
of view: Reconceptualising literacies through an exploration of
adult and child interactions in a virtual world. Journal of
research in reading, , n/a-n/a. COPE, Bill, KALANTZIS, Mary and New
London Group (2000). Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the
design of social futures. New York, Routledge.
21. DENZIN, Norman K. and LINCOLN, Yvonna S. (2011). The
discipline and practise of qualitative research. In: DENZIN, Norman
K. and LINCOLN, Yvonna S. (eds.). The SAGE handbook of qualitative
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Journal of research in reading, 32 (1), 38-56. NESPOR, J. (2010).
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WATT, Diane (2007). On becoming a qualitative researcher: the value
of reflexivity. The qualitative report, 12 (1), 82-101. WOHLWEND,
Karen E., et al. (2011). Navigating discourses in place in the
world of webkinz. Journal of early childhood literacy, 11 (2),
141-163. WOLCOTT, Harry F. (2008). Ethnography: A way of seeing.
[online]. Lanham, Md; Plymouth, Altamira Press.
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